Circles and Squares

This article suggests the new concept of “big-data based health IT services” in Korea. The potential for innovation is considerable as many in the United States and Europe would simply not tolerate this use of information. But in Korea, and in China, and elsewhere, it could well be a new model.

MK Business News

2012.05.21

SKT, KT venture into big data health IT business

Yoo Ki-yoon (aged 51) recently received a personalized healthcare plan based on genome analysis, which processes the patient’s medical and family history and offers relevant healthcare information. This comprehensive health IT service suggests which hospital to visit depending on the symptoms, while providing information on the number of surgeries performed at the hospital, the success rate, and even patient review on doctors. Such big data-based health IT services is expected to gain traction and become fully commercialized in the next year or two.

In line with this latest development, South Korea’s top telecom carriers and the Korean government are actively exploring the potential of big data in healthcare and personal health record (PHR) businesses.

The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) recently formed a consortium with the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), Seoul National University, internet portal Daum, healthcare website Korea Medicare, and information analysis service provider Saltlux to develop a big data-based healthcare application. This application will provide an integrated platform for healthcare information by combining the databases of hospitals from the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service (HIRA), drugs and pharmaceutics from the Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA), and food additives from the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MIFAFF). more